Laying Down the Oar
by Mitchmaniac
Summary: A mercenary spy for the Vidiians is about ready to make his move to give the Vidiians what they want: a member of Voyager's crew. A long-term plot reveals the Vidiians to be far more clever than they seem, and their newfound desire for interfering with Voyager due to recent events indicates a very different road than the one they were on (canon divergence).
1. Diverse Functions (part 1 full version)

**"Mercenary's Report Number 633549- I have located the perfect subject to finally fulfill my mission. Naturally, I expect ****_Full- Payment _****upon delivery. I will send coordinates when ready."**

The man shook his head, having reverted into his assumed personality's way of saying things when he said "full payment."

His character was rather fond of emphasis and long pauses. A penchant for the dramatic too. He'd been worried at first that no one could possibly take him seriously and that his gambit of going over the top would never work.

Really, the agent had been quite surprised that he'd managed to stay undercover this long. It had been years. Plus, he'd been using his real name, something his Vidiian employers had insisted upon. Likely to make it harder for him to slip away from them should he fail here.

Voyager had been a happy accident while he'd been pursuing a different prize for them, but they had offered him a king's ransom just for the little information he'd been able to send. He figured it would be worth a few years of his life, especially when he heard the updated amount for the new prize they wanted. A hundred times more. An emperor's ransom, with promises of immortality if the Vidiians used it to cure the Phage since they'd claimed that after the Phage, the little problem of getting old would be nothing.

Maybe they were lying, but either way, he'd be able to secure payment before giving up the prize.

The agent looked over at the device that hid his activities from any prying eyes a bit nervously to confirm it was working.

An old habit.

Where was he again?

Ah yes.

**"I believe it would be too dangerous to try kidnapping any other crew members since the more I have to knock out, the more I will likely have to kill during exfiltration, decreasing the likelihood that I will get you a living specimen. Plus, it's my understanding that the samples I sent for the other species were not nearly as exciting as the one you have selected."**

The agent smiled in the mirror, sly and expectant, unlike any expression he would ever make as his character. The muscles actually hurt in his mouth as he had made that expression, a very natural one on his real face, but such an unnatural one for his character that he felt an ache from atrophy.

It would all be worth it. He would find a way to kill those who were the most insolent to him during the past years. A small indulgence, but worth it.

Then, the money. Enough to get his revenge, for real this time. He'd foolishly let the chance slip through his fingers some years ago and then lost to him forever. But this time- this time his revenge would be felt by an entire planet, with the resources he'd have access to and the friends he was making.

Then, luxury, of course. Not that it had been so bad here. His hosts had impressive technology unlike anything else he'd ever seen. It's the reason why he'd agreed to stay long-term, being paid even though he could scarcely use his funds, and could only confirm the account's existence, He'd lived like a king even in his assignment, but nothing like he'd have soon.

There would be freedom from the aggravating limits he'd endured on this vessel, despite the ability to create nearly anything he wanted from scratch.

There would be women, of course. Maybe he'd even hunt down that tart that had escaped him.

There would be real entertainment. Enough to fill a planet. There would be smiling and happy faces again, after an eternity living among this dour bunch of "might as well be dead" people whose idea of entertainment, such as it was, very rarely even contained any death. Where were the stakes in that?

The possibility of maybe even buying his own planet danced in his mind, a holodeck simulation solidifying into reality.

Soon.

But not yet.

He finished his report and quickly put away his device before practicing his character in the mirror some more. The boundaries between himself and his character were thinning. He really needed to get out of here.

Just then an alarm went off. Rather than allowing himself to be surprised, he listened intently for the exact pattern.

Three beats, one, two.

The log he'd deleted yesterday in preparation for his departure had been breached.

Someone was on to him.

Quickly, he made inquiries with the computer, making sure to cover his tracks. That's when he knew.

It was her.

Of course it was.

Fortunately, this would only prove his point and increase her value to his employers.

She was quite a specimen.

In more ways than one.

He knew based on her inquiries, which were mostly analyzing subspace transmissions and the crumbs of his archive cleansing through Voyager's bio-neural gel pack systems that she'd detected, that she did not yet know about his treachery or anything about what was going on at all.

That meant that it was time. He had to move on capturing his target, and getting her out of the ship quickly while confusing the ship and giving him time to exfiltrate to safety.

The agent knew that he had little time, so he initiated some of the escape plans he had set long before, and prepared several items in a bag, including his privacy device. his device for subverting doors and computer systems, and a few other things he would need, including preparations he had made in his room, just in case.

And with that, he grabbed an "agent" of a sort on his own and hurried toward the Galley.

* * *

"Neelix! What are you doing here? I thought you were taking a break from cooking today, you know to 'save us from your cooking which is just _so_ bad', or whatever other melodramatic thing you said?" Paris put forth minimal effort while actually copying Neelix's mannerisms, as was his custom.

The agent's false face came back on smoothly, too smoothly. It was time to go. Paris was one of those boorish, overly confident jackanapes that Neelix sincerely hoped he'd have the opportunity to kill before this was over.

He went straight to the kitchen, finding a large bowl, and immediately dropping in some bananas and some almonds, as many as he could find. The bananas were getting pretty soft and overripe, which was actually good. It was important to hide the taste as much as possible. He also threw in whatever other random stuff he could find, trying to make it look like he was selecting carefully.

"Well, as it turns out, _Mr. Paris_," Neelix said, carefully making sure he was out of sight during this last bit, "_Some_ people properly appreciate my cooking. In fact, I'll have you know, my "Tlaxian Root and Banana Surprise" is _quite_ popular."

"Is the surprise that the bananas are rotting?" The buffoon asked. Neelix tried to shake off the image his mind was making of sliding his Vidiian blade right into Mr. Paris' neck, the blood pouring out as necrotic poison took his whole body.

What a beautiful sight Paris would make, lying on the floor, watching as his own body rotted rapidly, just like these bananas.

But no, he had a job to do. He took the laughter and self-congratulatory posturing of the buffoon as an opportunity to add his agent into the mix without anyone noticing.

_Your previous predictable vigor to eat my cooking in order to proclaim how bad it is without even thinking has made you so easy to experiment on, Mr. Paris,_ Neelix thought.

"Now, if you'll excuse me, _gentlemen_, he said, indicating Tom and a few of his friends, "I am quite finished with being rudely and unfairly insulted today."

And with that, he turned his chin up and walked out of the room, the unentertaining blitherings of that jackass well beneath his notice. Although it was part of his mildly buffoonish character, Neelix had to admit he loved putting that jackass in his place on a regular basis, even if no one else could see it, yet.

_Just wait until you realize how dim you've all been_, he thought, grinning internally.

As soon he was outside, he turned the opposite direction of where he wanted to go and activated his privacy device. It shouldn't set off any alarms yet, but it would within a day or two.

He would be long gone with his prize by then, of course.

As soon as he knew it was working, and that playback from any recording or locating devices would produce only malfunctions, he turned around and headed straight for his intended destination.

The Astrometrics Lab.

r/realityzero


	2. Diverse Functions (part II)

**Chapter 2**

**((Note-Updating Thursdays (hopefully))**

Seven took a deep breath, a very human gesture, as more oxygen was not really required presently. However, she had been practicing with The Doctor both appear more human and also to calm herself when she was frustrated, so the action should serve both objectives.

She was not yet used to frustration. It was not a problem in the collective. The collective simply kept applying more resources until the problem was corrected, but, here among humans, Seven was trying to acclimate to the human way of doing it, which was to, how did The Doctor put it?

"Clear your head until the answer comes to you," Seven said out loud, remembering.

She had been experiencing unprompted, "**File Not Found" **errors on her console since this morning. The errors had actually started while she was in her regeneration cycle in her alcove. Clearly, it was unlikely that anything that she had done.

Seven could hear The Doctor's voice in her head, telling her to "say it out loud!" in order to understand.

Reluctantly, she acquiesced.

"**Daily log, supplemental. The errors I noticed earlier this morning remain, as of the current time, without an apparent source or cause. I have even removed the biodata console in the Astrometrics lab and examined them at a physical level with my nanoprobes in order to ascertain what the error might be. Per The Doctor's advice, I am attempting the human procedure he referred to as "clearing one's head." This means I must now commence speaking on an unrelated subject, while unaccounted errors cause unknown damage to the ship's systems. "**

She paused, engaging in the "Deep breaths" procedure. Her chest heaved slowly up and down, and she had to admit that the gesture helped her improve her frustration, though only by a micron.

**"Therefore, I will now engage in step two of "Clearing One's Head," which, according to the Doctor involves "Taking a Walk."**

She ended the log and then began to pack up her tools and reassemble the bio units connected to her computer.

Seven finished cleaning up and stood there for a moment.

It seemed useless to just walk with no destination in mind and she was having difficulty forcing herself to do it.

Walking.

Destination.

"Why did I assume that it was only biodata units connected to my console directly that were the source of the error?" She said out loud, following the procedure.

She made a note to thank The Doctor for his suggestions.

Picking up just one tool this time, she exited the lab and began scanning the units outside in the hallway as she slowly walked down it. What she was looking for was a unit along the way to the core that could perhaps be separated from the rest. A standalone unit that could be connected and disconnected.

After a minute over walking along the hallways and glancing at her scanner, a distinctive sound chirped out, responding to her scanning results query.

Seven stopped and scanned the unit in question.

The results didn't lie, this was it. The unit had been instructed to disconnect from other units.

Her eyes lit up a bit as she realized what the code and the situation were saying.

Someone did this. Deliberately.

Tapping furiously she dug into the unit and found that half of its logs were deleted. However, it appeared that the entity responsible had deleted too much in their haste. That's why the retrieval errors were popping up. This unit wasn't far from the lab, that was likely why she had detected it first.

However, the question was why had so much data been deleted? Looking it over, Seven realized that logs and other information for several _years_ had been deleted, not just on this unit, but likely on other units as well.

Her device gave her a path to follow, modeling the biogel units and the flow of information for her to follow.

Just then, The Doctor walked around the corner with his portable holoprojector, accompanied by a short woman with blonde hair that Seven didn't immediately recognize.

Seven walked confidently down the hallway toward them, her tool in her hand.

"Seven!" The Doctor said brightly. "I don't believe you've met-" He began, but Seven politely interrupted him.

"I am taking your advice and "clearing my head" on a "walk," She told him. "I believe that it may be bearing fruit, despite my initial skepticism."

"Oh? Well, excellent, excellent! Say no more," He said, bringing up a finger to his lips.

"The walk is a sacred human custom! I will catch up with you later!"

"Indeed," Seven said, her eyes already glancing towards her display and the next way to turn down the hallway.

Behind her, she heard some of the conversation as The Doctor and the unknown woman took their time moving down the hall as Seven looked intently at her display, making sure of the right way to go.

"Well, clearly we need to tell everyone you're back!" The Doctor said. "You're sure that you're stable now? There's no danger? Of course there's no danger. I mean, look at you!"

"Yes. I'm definitely certain Doctor. I barely understand it at all, but I can at least shut it off now. I can travel through space, and I can turn back into me, and other little things here and there. It feels like turning on a hundred little lights, in my body, and then just flipping the switch off again. I don't think I can do much of anything else though, but I know I'm not dangerous. I landed near volcanos on purpose to frighten myself, but I never lost control. I'm OK. I understand if the captain is skeptical, but I'm confident I can prove it to her. Any test she wants. This is where I belong."

Seven glanced over her shoulder and noticed that The Doctor looked emotional in some way Seven had trouble describing. Even stranger, she felt some uncomfortable emotion as well. She would have to examine it later.

_This direction is accurate_, she thought, and immediately strode that way.

Upon arriving at her destination, Seven immediately scanned the biogel unit she was looking for. Here again, there were telltale signs of data that had been deleted and all those error messages. However, here it appeared that her quarry had been particularly sloppy. She employed a Borg retrieval method, directly from her nanoprobes, inserting her tubules right into the gel.

After a minute, she decided to continue her daily log on a secure line back to her room since she needed to "clear her head" again, the information was so confusing.

One of the recovered files was a transmission. A secret transmission on a secure subspace line that Seven was familiar with.

"I believe the transmission is Vidiian in nature. Species 111. Universally afflicted with an unidentified dangerous pathogen known as the Phage. Unfit for assimilation."

Just then, she heard the sound of someone coming, so she retracted her tubules and continued analyzing the data she'd recovered on her display. Right as the footsteps neared the corner, Seven looked up to see who it was.

"Mr. Neelix," Seven said with some surprise, an eyebrow growing up. "Are those not your quarters down that hallway?" She had wondered what had been causing the feeling of familiarity she was experiencing.

"Why, it is!" Neelix said. "How good of you to notice! Actually, Seven, I've been looking for you!"

"You have?" Seven said, her attention pulling back to her data. Who was making secret transmission to the Vidiians and why? She tapped at her device a few more times, trying to see from where this data had been inputted.

"I brought you something to eat! You know that I always say you don't do that nearly enough. But you're human now, and you should enjoy everything that comes with it! Like eating! Now, I know that you probably view it as a chore, but no problem. That's why I've brought some to you!"

"Thank you Mr. Neelix," Seven said, not bothering to turn around. "That will not be necessary."

Looking at the lines of biodata flow, Seven noticed that there was a difference in this one. It hadn't traveled nearly as far as the others. It was also even larger than the other units she still had to investigate, that much was clear from the visual representations she was looking at here.

"But it's a surprise dish! Surely you want to try just a little bit of it!" Seven could see that Neelix had gotten closer to her, and she took a slight step away from him involuntarily, as she found him unpleasant. There was the sound of a spoon hitting the edge of a bowl, and Seven could see some kind of foul-smelling salad inside the bowl.

"No. I appreciate the gesture, but I am busy. Please leave."

Seven looked at the lines of flow more carefully, and-

That was strange. Much of the data for this unit had been inputted directly from nearby quarters. That meant that-

Abruptly, Seven heard the loud sound of crackling electric energy coming from right behind her, as well as the distinct smell of ozone and burning air.


	3. Diverse Functions (part iii)

Chapter 3

(note-updating on or near Thursdays)

Seven's muscles locked as thousands of volts hit her square in the back. She turned around to face her attacker as she backed up and slumped against the wall.

It was seconds before she came to again, and the first thing she saw was Neelix with a leering look on his face, staring down at Seven's body.

_I do not recall him ever doing that before, _Seven thought, making a note of it.

He reached out for her just in time for Seven's control to return, and she cuffed him hard on the side of his head with the back of her fist, rising as she made the blow.

"My nanites have made a makeshift Faraday Cage in my body, rerouting much of the electricity," She said as the hallway rained with sparks all around them, shorting out the lights in the ceiling.

The rage was building now, and she was letting it.

_He wants to possess you_, a little voice said in the back of Seven's head. _Just like the Collective did. Just like they all do_.

Neelix reeled backward from the blow, falling several feet to one side of her.

"Seven to Tuvok," Seven said, tapping her com badge.

"Go ah-ead," Tuvok said, his voice punching through heavy static. Her com badge was still sparking.

Neelix slowly recovered. His eyes widened as he stood up from where he'd fallen against the wall next to her. They got quite large when he saw the look she was giving him.

"If looks could kill, am I right?" He said, casually.

But Seven could see the fear in his eyes.

"Please report to-" Seven began and Neelix jerked as he shook off his concussed head and realized what Seven was doing.

The Tlaxian took a step back from the wall and stabbed his weapon into a piece of metal that Seven was still leaning against, as it was part of the panel access for this hallway.

This time, however, she barely felt it as even more sparks flew out everywhere into the hallway.

She appreciated the strange sensation of being at the center of a lightning storm. Unfortunately, the blast fried her com badge completely. It crackled one more time and whined in protest before dying, a little wisp of smoke coming up from it.

She released her hold on the back wall and stood up, turning sharply toward her attacker.

"I am Borg. I have adapted," She told him mildly.

This time she stepped forward, anchoring her body on the floor, and slammed her palm directly into the man's chest, lifting him up off the ground. At the same time, instinctually, she lashed out with her other palm as well, striking Neelix's nose, drawing on all of her borg-enhanced strength as well as pushing off with her feet on the floor.

There was a satisfying crunching sound as the cartilage crumbled under her strike.

The effect of all this was that Neelix, who had already been rising up under the first blow, took the second to his face in a way that made him spin once, end over end, finally slamming against the back wall.

He did not immediately get up.

The storm was raging in her head now, even as the electrical storm died down. She knew, intellectually, that there was a man lying on the floor in front of her-

But all she saw was a target to be destroyed.

He had not injured her today.

However-

He was just like everyone who ever had. Her vision narrowed, her body started moving, her mouth started talking, and some part of her felt just as surprised as the barely-conscious Neelix was at what she said.

"I was forbidden from ever using this. By Captain Janeway," Seven said, advancing on Neelix's crumpled form. "However, I believe I will be excused from doing so under the circumstances. Do not worry, I will not assimilate you, only incapacitate your body temporarily."

Her hand formed into a fist, and her talon tubules began to peek out of her right hand, the anticipation building as she extended them towards the prone man's neck.

The rage built and built in her mind like a wave getting taller and taller.

With a breath, finally aware of what was happening; she managed to calm it down just barely, the storm settling back into mere a merely unsettled sea.

No.

She would not do to others what had been done to her.

_He still has his weapon_, Another voice said. _Best not get too close to him._ So, instead she used her tubules to inject nanites into the wall. She would simply have them tunnel to a communications juncture and contact help that way.

Fortunately, there was one not too far away. The panel had been destroyed in the fight, but the mechanism underneath it still functioned.

In seconds, her nanites had done it.

"Seven to Tuv-" She began, but before she could establish the connection, Neelix, without moving from his position _in_ the far wall drew another weapon from somewhere, and fired a small canister across the width of the hall, where it slammed into Seven's shoulder.

She turned toward him again, reaching to where the canister had pierced her body. Electricity redoubled out of the canister, this time with an intensity that made it hard to even look at, like an arc welder. She put her fingers around it and attempted to pull it out of her shoulder. Her muscles were starting to spasm, however, and her nanites were struggling to diffuse the energy, as many had been destroyed in the two previous efforts.

After a few long moments, she slumped back against the wall, her body still spasming as the embedded device continued to deliver shocks.

"I only had one shot of that you belligerent tart," Neelix spat, barely able to get out of the hole his body had made in the wall.

"It's lucky I'm a good shot, or I would have actually been bested by a _woman_."

He was shaking himself now, and for a very different reason as the woman on the ground.

Then, his mind went into overdrive.

_She just contacted Tuvok. Twice._

He had no time.

If Tuvok came here, he was dead. Plain and simple.

_But how would Mr. Vulcan know where to go?_

Neelix had a chance. But he had to act at the speed of light.

It took him three tries to get his body moving, as his legs weren't working. His whole body screamed at him to give up, but he didn't.

Taking a hyper spray out of his pack, he deactivated his only trump card weapon-the shock canister, right as he injected Seven with the spray at the neck. He used 10 times the dose he'd give a normal human, and he only had to hope it was enough.

She had been a _monster_. He'd seen her fight before, but never like this.

The worst pain he ever felt in his life occurred was when he reached down to grab her leg and pull her towards his quarters. He screamed loud enough that everyone on the ship probably heard him. He took a moment to make sure his privacy tool was still working, disrupting any recording devices nearby and dampening any kind of energy, including screaming.

It was. It hadn't been destroyed by the fight, somehow.

Small mercies.

He almost blacked out twice trying to drag the woman into his room.

_Normally this would be fun_, he thought, looking down at her prone form with a grin, finally getting her past the threshold.

Then he remembered his bowl of food.

Returning with an exaggerated limp into the hallway, he saw that it was _everywhere._ Bananas, greens, vegetables, scattered in all directions.

_If anyone sees this, I'm once again-dead_, He thought.

His hand was now shaking so bad he could barely open his pack. He didn't have the luxury to be thorough. Instead, he simply used a low-grade energy pistol to vaporize as much as he could in the area without getting it past the threshold that would alert the security systems.

Fortunately, it didn't take much to vaporize a salad.

He laughed and then winced in pain, his vision narrowing again with agony.

He managed to avoid screaming as he put a hand on his face, keeping his blood from getting on the ground from his destroyed nose. It had soaked thoroughly into his shirt, however, a large stain that would likely never come out again. The flow was down to a drip he could catch with his body.

Ironically, that first blow to his chest, which made him barely able to move, had probably saved his life. It had pushed him a little bit away from his pretty little cyborg in the nanosecond before she hit him in the face, otherwise it probably would've driven his nose right into his head and killed him instantly.

He fell over onto a chair back in his quarters, making sure to lock the doors as they shut.

Pulling a Vidiian medical scanner out of his pocket, he scanned himself and waited for the prognosis.

He was breathing heavily now and-

The next time he looked down at the scanner he saw it flashing in his hand.

**"****Please respond****_," _**it was saying.

The chronometer on it indicated he'd been unconscious for two minutes.

Two minutes he didn't have. How long until that joyless Vulcan and his _logic_ figured out where Seven had gone?

"I'm here," He told it. "Tell me what to do."

It was listing out his injuries and told him he would be dead in under an hour if he didn't seek treatment.

Fractured ribs. One of them had punctured an organ. He didn't bother to look at which one. Broken leg. Broken arm. Broken nose.

Broken everything. He coughed up blood as he took out a vial that came out of the scanner and bit off the cork with his teeth.

He downed the whole thing in two seconds. Thick, brackish liquid that tasted like he was drinking foul, rotting bread before it had been baked.

The scanner sent out light to pick up on what he was doing, confirming that he'd taken the medicine.

It then instructed him to put the scanner near half a dozen places on his body as it injected him over and over again.

**Stem cells, administered. Biochemical regenerative agents administered. Allied reconstructor cells administered. Anti-pain agent administered**.

Vidiian script flew across the screen, with a Vidiian voice and another, high-pitched one translating it, vying for his attention.

He began to feel better immediately. From being on the ship, he knew that the injuries he'd just sustained would've taken weeks, maybe months to heal in this ship's medbay.

Thanks to Vidiian tech, it would only be minutes.

That was it though, he was out now. The Vidiians didn't have the fancy federation tech that could make something from nothing. He would need to buy more.

_No more almost-dying allowed_, he thought. That was OK. No fun anyway!

He looked around at his quarters and Seven's unconscious body.

_If only there were more time_, he thought.

But there wasn't.

"If I didn't know any better, sirs, and lady, I would say I wasn't welcome here anymore!"

His body began to relax as the crisis was averted. He began to feel better and better.

Until he didn't.

Something was wrong.

**"****Intrusion detected."**

The translating alien voice on the scanner said.

His arm began to seize up and the feeling spread to his legs.

Before long, he toppled to the ground and began seizing as all of his muscles contracted at once.

Fortunately, this meant that he didn't drop the scanner and it kept chirping along merrily, trying to save his life in that awful, double-voice.

**"****Nanomechanical intrusion detected. Warning. Motor functions at 80% and dropping.**

**Warning. Nanomechanical counteragent cartridge required. Warning."**

With horror, Neelix watched the veins in his arms and legs turn black from where he lay on the ground, helpless.

He'd seen this before.

That witch. It was her nanobots.

_From when I grabbed her and pulled her inside_, he realized suddenly.

She'd prepped the bots before. In those horrible talon tubules. Some must have been still on her when I grabbed her.

_Oh God._

He could feel them in his body now. Circuit patterns began to appear on his arms and legs underneath the rips in his clothing from the fight.

**"****Cartridge required!**" The useless scanner was saying.

"**Warning! Infestation at 40%"**

The double voice sounded like good old Tlaxian was being drowned out by sounds coming out of some kind of partially burnt frog's throat.

Neelix managed to overcome the paralysis in his body with sheer willpower, crawling along the ground like a worm.

His arm was gripping the scanner so tightly due to his paralysis that he couldn't have dropped it if he tried.

It put out a hologram that hovered over his closet, indicating where his secret stash was.

Fortunately, he'd foolishly left it open from before. His fake Neelix mannerisms were coming out and causing him to act the buffoon.

_Lucky they did_, he thought.

He reached out to the stash and grabbed the cartridge, his whole hand tremoring from the effort of fighting the paralysis, and just barely managed to put the cartridge in the scanner.

Then he fell over, completely paralyzed. He couldn't move a muscle anymore.

He had to rely on the technology of those horrible Frankensteins (as the humans would put it) for his life now.

**Cartridge received. Preparing countermeasure…Done. Administering countermeasure. Please remain still and do not disrupt the procedure.**

Something fired out of the scanner and into his arm.

_As if anything that went wrong would be my fault_, Neelix thought. _Typical Vidiians._

The seconds ticked by and Neelix felt panic rising in his throat. They were going to come through at any minute.

He'd probably be thrown out an airlock.

Or worse, they wouldn't find him, and it would just be more of this.

Neelix watched the black circuit patterns infesting his body and imagined it completing. He'd seen what the borg did to people.

After a moment the paralysis began to subside, just a little bit at first and then, bit by bit, he got control back.

_It had only been a little bit from that horrible Borg woman. If that had been a full dose-_

**"****Countermeasure complete. Gratitude for not ruining procedure**."

Neelix got up from the ground. Whenever he closed his eyes he saw Seven, with her tubules moving toward him, his flesh turning to metal.

"You beast of a woman!" He screamed, kicking her in the ribs until he heard them crack. "You almost killed me twice! After you were _unconscious!"_

He drew his Vidiian knife and put it to her throat.

Maybe instead he would just tie her up.

Maybe he had just enough time to-

No. Neelix glanced at his chronometer.

He'd lost nearly 20 minutes. If he had any chance of getting out of here it had to be now.

Instead, he went and got a large bag, maybe the last trick the Vidiians would ever give him, and he began preparing his excuses.


	4. Diverse Functions (part IV)

"EMH to Captain Janeway!" The Doctor said cheerfully, beaming at Kes as she sat

"You were right to meet me in a cargo bay," The Doctor said to Kes. I was, in fact, with a patient at the time. A Mr. Roy, as I recall. A bit jumpy that one, I am quite afraid you would have given him quite a fright had you appeared there.

Kes giggled a little.

"Yes doctor. I probably would have."

"Yes, Doctor?" Janeway responded, sounding tired.

"Please report to sickbay. I have quite a surprise for you!"

"Can't wait," Janeway said, cutting off the connection.

"Why, she sounded downright unpleasant, "The Doctor scoffed.

"You probably woke her up," Kes said.

"But this is quite extraordinary!"

"She doesn't' know that," Kes said immediately. She found her hand was shaking a bit.

Not because of her powers though. For another, more emotional reason.

"Well of course not, that would ruin the surprise!"

A minute later, Janeway walked into sickbay, holding a cup of coffee.

"Alright, Doctor, this better be-"

Janeway looked up and saw Kes.

The cup fell from her hands and shattered across the ground.

Boiling hot coffee spilled over her feet.

She just stood there, staring.

"I'm back!" Kes said, her hand drifting behind her back to grab her other arm.

"Kes!" Janeway said, running forward to draw her in a hug.

"Are you OK? Are you in one piece? What happened?"

"I'm OK," Kes said. "I have control now. That's why I'm back."

Janeway drew back from the embrace to regard her, clearly trying to process."

"It just took a little practice," Kes said. "And I found a few people along the way to help. It's hard to explain really. It felt like something had been unlocked in my head, and I just had to learn the knack of keeping everything in the "off" position, if that makes sense. Once I learned how to do it, then it wasn't so hard, I just keep the switch down, and I could do it all the time, even while sleeping. Even under stress."

There were a few beats of silence.

"I hung out in a volcano to make sure I could maintain some power without losing control," She offered, cheerfully.

Janeway nodded slowly, not seemingly ready to respond yet.

"I'm quite stable now, Captain," Kes said. "I'm sure of it. I am OK, and I can instantly leave the ship whenever necessary, if there is a problem, see?"

With a flash of purple and white light, Kes vanished.

A moment later, she reappeared.

Without saying anything to Kes, Janeway contacted the bridge, and asked them a few pointed questions about whether anyone new was on the ship. Whoever was on duty, someone Kes didn't recognize, said that they had just detected a minor energy fluctuation that seemed to appear just aft of voyager, but it vanished so quickly they were sure it was just a glitch.

"Please report any further 'glitches' to me immediately," Janeway said.

Janeway rubbed the bridge of her nose.

She threw her hands up.

"OK, I admit it. To all appearances it looks like you have control. Do your tests doctor, and I'm going to bring B'Elanna in here too, in order to make sure you don't destabilize the ship again. But, if it all checks out, and they're sure, then of course you can stay. We missed you." Janeway said, smiling.

She jumped forward suddenly, and held Kes in a tight grip.

"I missed you. It was like admitting you were dead, but no one could grieve."

She broke off with Kes again and smiled at her.

"I'm tired still, and I still need to process, all of this. It was hard enough when you left!"

"But I can't have you messing up my ship!" She gave Kes a finger waggle that appeared at least partially serious, and with that Janeway vanished back from where she came, presumably to go sleep again.

"I thought that went really quite well," The Doctor said cheerfully after Janeway had left.

"You didn't even say anything," Kes said.

"I didn't want to get in the way of the homecoming," The Doctor said loftily.

Kes just nodded, giving him a bit of a weak smile.

Tuvok prepared his report of the strange and inappropriate behavior Mr. Neelix had displayed this week, same as every week for almost as long as he could remember.

He found that it helped clear his head. He wrote the same conclusion that he always wrote, a recommendation of removing Mr. Neelix from all major ship functions. He wasn't pushing it anymore the way he had, once. He would allow Janeway to ignore it without additional comment. This was the balance that they'd struck.

He could not, however, not write the report. He was voyager's security chief, and this was his main concern, and Mr. Neelix remained a liability due to his incompetence. That was a fact.

What their captain did with that information was up to her, as always.

Finishing his report with lines like "dangerous and stupefying lack of self-control" Tuvok sent it off to Janeway. Having completed this, he headed to the bridge to begin his shift.

Chakotay had the conn as Janeway was not present. With a look of acknowledgment, Tuvok began his routine security scans.

NO sooner had he started doing so when he noticed something strange. Several monitoring device had start accruing errors that-

"Seven to Tuvok"

Tuvok's comm badge chirped followed but seven's voice, a bit of a surprise to both himself and, looking around, a few others on the bridge.

"Tuvok here. Go ahead," He responded after a moment to compose himself.

They had an audience now. Nothing else was happening in the bridge, and the crew were all watching his Tuvok lifted his head up a bit, preparing for Seven.

"Ple-ase- Rep-ort to-" Her voice began, heavy with static.

Then it abruptly went dead.

"That didn't sound good," Paris said.

"No, it did not," Tuvok agreed.

"Tuvok to Seven. Come in."

The only response was static and a buzzing sound.

"Computer, locate Seven of Nine," Tuvok said, raising his head and speaking clearly.

There was a pause, and then the computer said-

"Seven of Nine is in the Cargo Bay,"

Tuvok nodded, making his way towards the door quickly.

"And in the Astrometrics lab. And on the bridge," The computer's voice said.

Tom and another crew mate, a trill woman, shared confused looks as they looked around the open bridge.

Cutting back a smart joke, Tom stood up.

"Something's wrong," He said, a bit lamely.

"I agree," Chakotay said, holding up his hand. 'However, we don't know what it is yet Tom, so stay here. Tuvok?"

_What information do I have with which to hypothesize_? Tuvok asked himself.

Very little.

She had contact him in distress, which gave him information all on its own, for which he was grateful. However, she had given him no information beyond that besides telling him he needed to change locations, presumably to where she was, which he did not know.

Just then, there was a power surge near the crew quarters according to his station, and monitoring devices aboard the ship near there were showing malfunctions. Not enough to affect bridge functioning, but enough to be highly suspicious.

"Seven to Tuv-"

His badge chirped again, sounding very strange this time, as it was more of a warble than a chirp. It echoed loud in the tense, dead air of the bridge.

every eye was on him.

Strangely, he realized he had heard seven's voice before the chirp.

Her voice had sounded quite tense.

"Seven! Name your attackers or state the situation first!" Tuvok said, interrupting her words.

However, it was too late. The line had gone dead again.

Tapping his badge, and racing towards the turbolift, Tuvok said,

"Tuvok to Security teams 5, 7, and 9. Begin security sweeps of major ship decks. We may have an intruder."

"Chakotay to Seven of Nine," The first officer said, saving Tuvok from needing to try again.

There was no response.

"Commander, I'm reading some serious power surges from all over the place," Harry added.

The light on the bridge dimmed and flickered back on again.

"Yes ensign, quite observant. Now if you'll excuse me, I am unfortunately needed elsewhere."

The doors on the turbolift shut, and Tuvok had to hope that the power surges wouldn't kill the power while he was in the middle of the lift. However, it was a risk he knew he needed to take. Seven was in some distress, and seconds would count.

All he could do, given the dearth of information he had access to currently, was start with the normal places Seven would be. These included Astrometrics and her regeneration device in the cargo bay.

Whatever was happening, Tuvok would have to hope he got there in time.

Deep within unconsciousness, for some reason, Seven's mind drifted to that short blonde woman she had just seen with The Doctor, just for a moment. She felt a strange pulse in her body and reached out.

A small window opened up and Seven had no idea where it was leading. She had no idea whether any of this was even happening. Something had disturbed her from blackness, and her body was telling her that she had to wake up and get away from her at all costs.

Kes was talking to the Doctor about this and that, catching up, when-

An unnatural window appeared, directly in the middle of the room. A low muttering voice said,

"Waking up eh? Well we can fix that,"

The rectangular window had a silver edge to it, but it was completely black. Before either of them could react, there was the sound of moving cloth, and then the window suddenly closed.

There was a tearing sound, and a single piece of cloth fluttered into the room.

"It isn't me! I swear it isn't me!" Kes said, in protest. "I didn't do anything! I've been concentrating so hard!"

The Doctor put up a hand.

"It's OK Kes. It's OK. I believe you."

She shook her head.

"I'm sorry Doctor, I don't usually get so emotional, I don't know what happened."

"You're trying to come home. The only home you've ever known. I understand you don't want anything to jeopardize that. Now. I believe that you didn't cause this to happen. However, is it possible it's connected to you in some way?"

She shook her head again, drawing a hand across her eyes and wiping them clean of moisture.

"I don't know? I don't think so? Maybe? It's all so confusing!" She took a breath.

"For a second, I thought that-it was almost like I saw someone. As if someone was moving their hand onto that switch in my head. You know, the one I was telling the Captain about?"

The Doctor only nodded, putting a hand on his chin thoughtfully.

"It was like they were hitting the switch themselves, somehow, if only for a moment, but then I immediately turned it off, instinctually, to make sure nothing happened."

"Well then, at least you've got nothing to worry about on that score!" The Doctor said brightly. "That indicates it's an outside source, Kes. It's not you. IF anything this proves even more that you have control."

Kes took a breath and nodded.

"Thank you, Doctor," Kes said, breathing a little easier.

"Of course, that answers little and brings up even more questions. For starters, who was that voice? It almost sounded like-someone familiar," Kes began. "But no, it wasn't quite right. Too-"

"I agree. It sounded familiar, but I'm not sure who," The Doctor said.

Kes and the Doctor stood there thinking a minute, neither speaking, both minds racing.

"Still giving me trouble, eh?" Neelix said. His voice was dead calm, and he was quickly rewrapping Seven into the special Vidiian bag, his movements quick and efficient, but he had to admit he was unnerved. His scanners told me something had happened in the room. Some spacial disturbance. Had this Borg Monster done _something else_ while unconscious? How much could she possibly do?

_No matter, no matter. There's no time. Go Neelix, Go._

"I was hoping the bag could break your bones and rearrange you in ways to make you nice and compact so that you didn't look like a body at all, that is what it's for, you know," He said, conspiratorially. "But, you almost woke up again while it was working its magic! I had to sedate you, _again_. That wasn't very nice now, was it? So fine, you win, Miss Borg Lady. The bag would've made sure it could undo any real damage after. You would've been completely unspoiled. Not worth much to me elsewise, are you?"

Making a few configurations on the bag, he configured it to force Seven's legs towards her chest as much as possible without making any kind of break. Then, he covered her and activated the holographic controls to make it look like it was carrying heavy equipment. A few more button presses and the bag changed into a wheeled cart that he could push from one end, completely hiding what was actually at the bottom of it.

Then, he put on his best vapid, friendly expression, and began pushing the cart as quickly as he could towards the transporter room.

His secret hack of Voyager's sensors indicated that people were beginning to move all throughout the ship. A security sweep, just as he had anticipated after Seven had gotten her little messages out.

He had to get out of here right now.


End file.
